With trial looming, judge rules order curbing selectmen’s authority over police chief remains in effect

GILMANTON — A judge has denied a move by town selectmen to set aside a court ruling barring them from ordering the town’s police chief to abide by a set of directives regarding Police Department staffing and personnel.

Superior Court Judge James D. O’Neill III ruled that the temporary restraining order against selectmen needs to remain in effect until the court can rule on whether the directives promulgated in December 2017 are a proper exercise of the selectmen’s authority over the operation of the Police Department.

A trial in the case is scheduled to take place in Belknap Superior Court sometime after the New Year’s holiday, perhaps as early as January.

The ruling, which was issued Nov. 22, states only that the trial, which is expected to last two or three days, will take place when “the court’s calendar permits.”

At issue are a set of 17 directives — since reduced to seven — which deal with such matters as hours of coverage, staffing levels, lengths of shifts, use of cruisers and when officers are permitted to travel beyond town limits.

Police Chief Matt Currier took the selectmen to court in February 2018, arguing they exceeded their authority in adopting the directives, and that abiding by them would violate his authority under state law “to direct and control all [department] employees in the course of their work.”

The selectmen argue, however, that the police chief’s authority is subject to written, formal policies which the Board of Selectmen chooses to adopt.

Acting through his attorney, Edward Philpot, Currier argued that a set of town policies drawn up by the Municipal Resources Inc. consulting firm were, in effect, an attempt to by selectmen to do an end run around the O’Neill’s temporary restraining order of July 2018.

O’Neill denied Currier’s motion to find the selectmen in contempt. The judge found there was no evidence that selectmen willfully failed to comply with the restraining order.

In another part of his ruling, the judge said that Franklin Police Chief David Goldstein and former Belmont Police Chief Vinnie Baiocchetti cannot testify as expert witnesses on Currier’s behalf.

O’Neill wrote, “... the expert testimony of Baiocchetti and Goldstein will not aid ... the court to understand the evidence or determine the fact at issue.”

The interpretation of the state statute regarding the extent of a police chief’s authority “is a question of law and is for the court to determine,” the judge said.